Honoring Women's History Month

Mar. 23, 2025

Over on our Substack page, we're celebrating a few of the legendary Detroit women who have left their marks on our city. It's the sort of content that doesn't have a home on HistoricDetroit.org, the site, but history that is very much worth telling.

So far, we've shared the stories of Ruth Ellis (pictured above), a pioneer in Black, women's and LGBTQ+ rights; Mary Beck, Detroit's first female City Councilmember and council president; and Mary Chase Perry Stratton, the co-founder of Pewabic Pottery. We also have two more we've got for you before Women's History Month comes to an end.

Best of all, our Substack is free to all - though donations via subscriptions are welcome. Sign up at HistoricDetroit.Substack.com.

February 2025 site update

Mar. 9, 2025

February might be a short month, but it saw a slew of updates on the site. Despite a brief hospitalization, we still added FOUR lengthy histories of Detroit buildings to the site:

The mighty manufacturing juggernaut that was the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. (the surviving pieces of which are now known as One Ford Place in New Center), the Detroit Light Infantry Armory (the only building in the Motor City designed by renowned architectural master H.H. Richardson), the Princess Theatre (slogan: “nothing nicer anywhere”), and the COGIC Brooks Cathedral Center, which was originally St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church. This represents the largest output of complete histories we’ve added to the site in one month in some time.

And we have more to come, including one we’re working on now that involves one of the deadliest disasters in Detroit history. Stay tuned.

February also saw Helmut shooting his heart out, as always, with him adding 444 images. Including historic images, we added 639 photos to the site last month. This includes an incredible photo tour of inside the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, a place that not many get to see (pictured above). We highly recommend you check it out!

Lastly, you may have seen the article that Outlier Media wrote about me and my battle with stage 4 cancer. I want to let you know that I sung my appreciation for our Patreon patrons and their support, but it didn’t make the cut.

So, I’ll sing it again here: Thank you for your continued support! Especially in mentally, financially and health-challenging times, it is so incredibly appreciated!

The forgotten manufacturing might behind this Detroit building

Feb. 17, 2025

Up in New Center, just south of the Fisher Building, sits One Ford Place. Today, it is home to Henry Ford Health's administration, labs and more, but its history involves one of Detroit's forgotten titans of industry, the Burroughs Adding Machine Co.

We've added a full, in-depth history of this company, a powerhouse that once sold about 90 percent of the world’s calculating machines. Its story also includes a Beatnik author, one of the craziest corporate relocation plans ever (more on this in a future post), the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, an attempt to dethrone IBM as king of computers, and the formation of a company many still know today, Unisys.

If you haven't checked out our new Substack, we're telling more stories about Detroit and highlighting some of the quirky, fascinating and forgotten tales that might not quite fit on HistoricDetroit.org. Check out this unlikely bit about what the iconic Grande Ballroom has in common with a downtown sports bar, or the unsolved mob hit that stunned 1930s Detroit. We're also revisiting gems that might get lost in all the stories on the website, such as the building that made Detroiters 'seasick.'

If you'd like to help support our work here at HistoricDetroit.org, we have a Patreon, where you can get some nifty donation incentives for your generosity! Members get early access to new material, as well. Thank you!

January 2025 site update

Feb. 10, 2025

January saw a ton of new photographs added to the site, with Helmut adding 294 photos last month. The locations included Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church (pictured above), Michigan Central Station, updates on the ongoing Packard Plant demolition, and the White House on Belle Isle.

We continued to add more rare Belle Isle photos from Vance Patrick’s collection to the site, with another 72 of those added. These include vintage shots of the Belle Isle Aquarium, the second Bath House and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. 

We also added two east side churches to the site, the Church of the Messiah and the Iroquois Avenue Christ Lutheran Church. Interestingly, the latter was physically moved from downtown to Indian Village. Helmut has added a veritable top-to-bottom photo documentation of both of these houses or worship to their pages, as well. Meanwhile, Helmut got rare access to photograph inside the Sacred Heart Seminary, and has already added 64 photos with more to come.

The February update will be much more impressive, as I’ve switched from infusion chemo to radiation, which has left me with more pep to work on the site, including the longest new entry on our site in some time: the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. We trace the company’s history from its founding by the namesake of Beatnik author William S. Burroughs straight through its merger with Sperry to become Unisys to the building’s acquisition by Henry Ford Health to become One Ford Place.

Also want to plug our free Substack channel at historicdetroit.substack.com, where we're sharing some of the quirkiest and most fun stories about Detroit history. 

We thank you for your support! 

December 2024 site update

Jan. 13, 2025

Here's your site update for what we were up to in December 2024.

December saw us upload the first tranche of those rare Belle Isle photos we’ve been telling you about. Our Patreon members got an exclusive first peek before we opened it up to everyone else. In all, we have uploaded 233 images from Vance Patrick’s Belle Isle collection, ranging from old family candids on the island to shots from newspaper archives. Most of these images have not been seen in 50 years or more, and some of them - namely, the family candids - have never been shared anywhere else. In addition to a slew of shots from the Belle Isle Zoo, there are images of the long-forgotten Belle Isle Sawmill, photos I’ve never seen before of the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the first Belle Isle Bridge, and a ton of images of the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, Aquarium and Casino.

Not to be outdone, our very own Helmut Ziewers also continued to add a ton of stunning photography to the site, with 98 of his own images last month. These include photos of the Winter at The Station event at Michigan Central Station (pictured above), featuring the restored depot decked out in its holiday regalia; interiors of the historic Dime and Buhl buildings; shots of the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle after reopening following its two-year restoration effort; demolition shots of the Packard Plant and Kettering High School, and more.

Continuing the Belle Isle theme, December saw us add pages for five locations to the site. We added an admittedly half-hearted entry for all of Belle Isle in order to accommodate the photo galleries mentioned above. The history of the island is long, deep and important, so it’s going to take us a while to flush it out and do it justice, but there is some background there. We also added the old Belle Isle Lighthouse; the old Band Pavilion from which orchestras once serenaded passing canoeists; and the White House, which is the oldest structure on the island. In addition, we posted a history of the Roger Margerum House in Jefferson Chalmers, and dived into the revered Black architect’s background.

Lastly, I don’t normally disclose site metrics, but … last year, HistoricDetroit.org received a whopping 1.5 MILLION page views from 504,000 unique visitors. This is just for the site and doesn’t factor in all the views and engagement on our social media channels.

A huge thank you to our Patreon donors for helping to support our work and providing a free online resource for the community.

We’ve got so much more in store for you in 2025. We thank you for your support!

November update and 2024 year in review

Dec. 1, 2024

Season’s greetings from HistoricDetroit.org!

October and November updates

Our very own Helmut Ziewers has continued to add a ton of stunning photography to the site, more than 700 of them since October, in fact. This includes more than 50 images of the Detroit Public Library, St. Albertus Parish School, the iconic Grande Ballroom, the stunning interiors of the Water Board Building and Scarab Club, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among many others. He also continued to document the demolition of the infamous Packard Plant, including camping out to watch its water tower come down, and started chronicling the renovation of the Lee Plaza.

We added eight buildings to the site in October and November: the Detroit Fire Department Training Academy, the Forest Arms Apartments, Comerica Bank Center, Mercier Building, Monteith Elementary School, the Scarab Club, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the long-since demolished Fort Street Congregational Church. We also updated the Renaissance Center page with details and renderings of the proposed demolition of two towers as part of a $1.6 billion re-envisioning of the iconic building.

Our friend Vance Patrick lent us binders upon binders of rare historic Belle Isle images, and we have completed scanning hundreds of images. We’ve been cropping and touching up photos, and will be rolling these images out in batches. We’ll be sure to let you know when they're up, and, as always, our Patreon supporters get early access.

Year in review

We made a lot of progress in 2024, thanks to those Patreon supporters. There were 100 new locations added this year, ranging from landmarks like the Renaissance Center to churches to schools to the stately mansions built by auto barons and the like. That’s more than we’ve added in one year since launching the site in 2011.

There were just shy of 2,700 images by Helmut uploaded this year, chronicling not only the exteriors but stately interiors of many places our site’s visitors have never seen. From the Players Club to the Detroit Club, from the reborn Michigan Central Station to the doomed Packard Plant, Helmut and his camera gear were all over the Motor City, documenting for not only your eyes, but for posterity. We also added about 500 historical images for various locations.

Because we know you love vintage Detroit postcards as much as we do, we added about 300 new scans to the site, and just scanned about 300 more, so this number will grow before year’s end.

We also upped our presence on social media, ensuring posts every day - sometimes multiple posts. This ranged from our efforts to fight the demolition of the historic Detroit Boat Club and spreading awareness about how people could stand up for its preservation, to our new then-and-now feature that has proved popular, to our routine “on this date in Detroit history” posts. We’ve been most active on Facebook, but are trying to up our frequency on Instagram, as well.

In order to reach as many people as possible, we’re also launching a Substack that is free to join. We know this site has a LOT of content to sift through, so we’re going to make selections of new and past material. You can follow at substack.com/@historicdetroit. Again, we JUST launched it this week, so give us a bit of time to populate it. But I think it will be a good avenue for more people to see the work that our Patreon donors are helping to support.

We look forward to continuing to tell the stories behind the bricks in 2025 and beyond.

September 2024 site update

Sep. 24, 2024

Dan Austin here. So, why is the September site update so late? Well, I have some personal bad news, and at this time, I don’t know how it’s going to affect the site in the short term or the long.

In early August, I was diagnosed with late-stage (stage III-C) cancer. My life has been consumed by speed dating with various hospitals to determine where to seek treatment, all sorts of tests and doctor’s visits. This week, I had surgery to install my chemo port, and begin chemo on Thursday. I share this not in seeking sympathy or pity - just to explain why updates were few and far between last month. On the flip side, I’m hoping I’ll be able to write while receiving my treatment. At the end of the day, I just don’t know how I’m going to feel. But I’m hopeful.

Luckily, HD is now a two-person operation, and Helmut continues to pick up my slack.

In September, we added the Players Club, including a bunch of photos by Helmut. He added pages to host his photos of Alhambra Apartments, King Solomon Baptist Church, First English Evangelical Church and the Detroit Press Building. September saw Helmut add 320 images in all.

In other exciting news, our friend Vance Patrick - one of the driving forces behind saving the Belle Isle Aquarium - has lent us binders upon binders of rare historic Belle Isle images. We will be adding those over the next month or so.

Thanks for supporting what we do and bearing with me while I embark on this long fight. -d.a.

August 2024 site update

Aug. 23, 2024

Last month saw us cooking with Crisco, as we got back to site updates following the historic reopening of Michigan Central Station.

Our patreon members Patreon members got early access to two new additions to our site.

We added photos and history for the doomed Charles Kettering High School, a storied school on the city's east side that is slated to meet the wrecking ball.

We also added the Temple of the Maccabees, which started as a lumber baron’s mansion and wound up being felled for an Albert Kahn-designed Art Deco masterpiece. I’d looked at old postcards and photos of this far more modest ‘Bees hive for years. Though not one of the city’s most historically significant buildings, I’m glad to finally tell its forgotten story. We also added a brief page on one of the more unusually shaped buildings that once stood in Detroit, the parallelogram-shaped Otto Schemansky & Sons Building on Gratiot. We also added St. David’s Parochial, Van Zile, New and Marion Law elementary schools.

We also added more photos of the Renaissance Center, the Players Club and Detroit Institute of Arts. We’re working on getting permission to document a couple of other rarely seen interiors, and hope to bring you news on that next month.

Thanks to our Patreon members for everything that we do!

July 2024 site update

Aug. 2, 2024

July saw us add a few new buildings to the site, including the Lucy Thurman YWCA Branch.

Though segregation was not as bad in Detroit as it was in the South, there were still many restrictions on where Black Detroiters could live, work, and even play. This could range from hotels to recreation centers. This made facilities like the Thurman YWCA and the St. Antoine YMCA (built in 1924 and demolished in 1964) vital pillars of the Black community.

After integration led to the Thurman YWCA's closure, the building became home to the Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center for alcohol addiction, which was run by an eccentric priest named Father Vaughan Quinn. He would drive around Detroit picking up clients for the clinic in a 1917 fire engine.

The Thurman was demolished in 1998 to make way for Ford Field.

Learn more about the Thurman Y, the Prohibitionist that the branch was named in honor of and more on our site. Photos of the Thurman are very hard to come by. If you have photos or memories we'd love if you'd share them.

Helmut took a well-deserved vacation in July, but that didn't stop him from adding photos to the site, including updated demolition photos of the Packard Plant, which continues to come down day by day.

Accomplishing the 'impossible': Michigan Central has been reborn

Jun. 10, 2024

When people walked into the abandoned Michigan Central Station, they often said, "No way."

There was no way it could be saved. There was no way its lost grandeur could be restored. There was no way someone would ever come forward to undo nearly four decades of neglect and decay.

But Ford Motor Co. has shown where there is a will, there is a way. Michigan Central Station opened its doors June 7 to the masses for the first time since 1988. The results of a six-year restoration have given Detroit not only one of its most familiar landmarks, but has risen the bar on what is possible through preservation. It also has helped flip the script on our city, turning one of its most notorious symbols of disinvestment and decline into one of promise and pride.

We have added some 325 photos of this restored architectural wonder, and on social, we posted some before-and-after images that really show off what the 3,100 men and women who worked on this project accomplished over a staggering 1.7 million hours of labor. Helmut Ziewers has seemingly spent as many hours documenting nearly every corner of the building, and his work is available for you to see thanks to our generous Patreon members. Helmut even covered the opening concert on June 6.

As some of you may know, our lead researcher and writer, Dan Austin, is the communications director for Michigan Central. With the opening festivities being all-consuming (including a literal 20-hour work day on June 6), non-photography-related site updates have had to take a backseat. Once things settle down, however, he will be back at it. You can bet a restored 1913 train station on it.

For those in Michigan, Ohio and willing to make the drive, Michigan Central Station's restoration needs to be seen to be believed. Some 60,000 free tickets for the 10-day OPEN House were snatched up the first day they were made available, but the public will be able to see the depot without a ticket from 5-9 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays without a ticket starting June 21 and running through August.